25¢ Words

Send Me to Yosemite

Update: The contest has ended so I’m removing the voting widget. I’m pleased to have made it to double digits.

While in New Zealand I took a photo I liked enough to enter into a photography contest. (This is a definite first for me!) The picture was taken inside a snow cave on Fox Glacier. Glaciers are dynamic environments; caves come and go every few weeks, and the subject of this picture is long gone.

I chose this contest because the reward for the top four vote-getters is an all-expenses-paid trip to Yosemite for a nature photography workshop. I’ve become quite interested in photography over the past few months and this workshop would be a lovely way to progress (and an excellent excuse for a camera upgrade). Please give me a vote if you like the photo.

You may also want to browse the other submissions. "Nature's Firefall" is my favorite photo in the contest.

My full Fox Glacier photo set is up on flickr.

Here and Gone

I got back to Austin a week ago. Baked bread, roasted coffee, acted social, reconnoitered the local public boat launch, and voted. Tomorrow I’m hitting the road again, this time for a brief loop to New Mexico. I’ll head toward White Sands, then wander up the I-25 corridor, aiming for Las Vegas (NM) in time to watch the election returns. Then it’s back to Austin for a reprise of the contract life while I figure out what to do next.

Launch!

(The rest of the launch day set is up on flickr.)

Heading off again

I’m departing for Tennessee tomorrow morning. Quite ready to get the kayak varnished and in the water! Stories from the New Zealand trip have been delayed as I’ve been consumed with photos (see the collection so far).

The number of shots I brought home apparently surpassed the capacity of iPhoto, so I switched over to Aperture. It took me a couple of days to get up to speed with the program (it’s much deeper in both curation and editing options) but I’ve come to really enjoy it. Have also ventured toward a rabbit hole with HDR photos (just before leaving I installed the CHDK firmware on my camera to allow RAW capture and automatic bracketing of exposure), but haven’t produced anything satisfactory yet.

Home…

…happy, at odds with the clock. Just starting to process photos. Planning to post trip highlights over the coming week.

New Zealand Itinerary

For those keeping score at home, here’s the plan (dates are local, hence the apparent asymmetry in travel time).

• 8/5-8/7: Fly from Austin to LA to Auckland to Christchurch
• 8/7-8/8: Christchurch
  • ride the gondola up Mount Cavendish and walk back down
• 8/9-16: Wellington
  • 8/9: travel from Christchurch to Wellington by train and ferry
  • 8/10-16: WWOOF farmstay in Petone — half-days working, half-days exploring
• 8/17-8/26: South Island (with car)
  • 8/17: Picton
  • 8/18: Christchurch
  • 8/19-8/20: Dunedin
    • Otago Peninsula wildlife tour
  • 8/21-8/24: Te Anau
    • Milford Sound nature cruise
    • Kepler Track day hike
    • Doubtful Sound wilderness cruise
  • 8/25: Wanaka
  • 8/26: Fox Glacier
    • Fox Glacier heli-hike
  • 8/27: Christchurch
    • via TranzAlpine train from Greymouth
• 8/28: Fly from Christchurch to Melbourne
• 8/28-8/31: Melbourne
  • symphony, art, aquarium, cricket match
• 8/31: Fly from Melbourne to Auckland to LA to Phoenix to Austin

Many more things I’d like to do, with more time…